1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a paint conduit comprising a jacket surrounding an interior in which a hose is arranged and comprising at least one end member fastened to one end of the jacket and securing the hose.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a paint conduit is disclosed in DE 101 01 056 A1.
By means of such a paint conduit, a liquid paint, for example, a liquid enamel paint, is transported from a source to a paint dispensing device, for example, a paint atomizer. When the source is configured as a color changer, it must be taken care that the paint is cleaned from the conduit before another paint can be guided therethrough. In order to recover the liquid paint that is contained in the conduit between the color changer and the dispensing device, it is customary to employ pigs, i.e., bodies that fill the cross-section of the paint conduit and are moved from the dispensing device back to the source. When doing so, the pig moves the liquid paint in front of it and forces it back into the paint source.
DE 101 01 056 A1 proposes to feed a pressure medium into the space between the jacket and the hose which pressure medium compresses the hose and empties it by squeezing it. The liquid paint contained in the hose is thus returned to the source.
This method that can be referred to also as “squeeze” technique is theoretically indeed feasible. However, its realization encounters difficulties in practice. It is necessary to fix two coaxially extending conduits, i.e., the jacket, that can be referred to also as outer conduit, and the hose, that can be referred to also as the inner conduit. The intermediate space between the jacket and the hose must be sealed to the exterior so that pressure loading is possible. For this purpose, in the configuration according to DE 101 01 056 A1 the hose is pushed onto a pipe section. It is secured thereat by residual stress. The pipe section is provided on a section that is adjacent to the end of the jacket with an outer thread onto which a connecting socket is screwed. The jacket is then pushed onto the connecting socket and is secured by a hose clamp.
Mounting of such an end member is extremely complicated. For example, the end of the hose must be manipulated within the interior of the jacket because the hose is significantly shorter than the jacket.